Poetry. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ZIMMER brings together a selection from the more than 130 "Zimmer poems" published over the course of forty years, along with new ones never before published. Twenty- five years ago the poet Gerald Stern wrote, "The publication of Zimmer's poems…is a cause for rejoicing among American poets. It should be a cause for rejoicing in general—if only they knew. I know of no poet whose poems are more loving, more wise, more beautiful." THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ZIMMER raffirms that truth and gives us more reason ever to rejoice.

The Importance of Being Zimmer

Literature & Fiction

Zimmer, Paul

Poetry

Settlement House Books

Poetry. Dennis Sampson's THE LUNATIC IN THE TREES, does everything we could ask of a book of poems. It has its own peculiar bent, is unique in its preoccupations, is well crafted and, ultimately, refreshingly humane. Of Sampson's earlier work, Philip Levine has said, "In an era of...books of poetry largely about their own skill with language, it's more than a little breathtaking to encounter a poet who writes for the most basic reason: because he has to." As he has done in previous collections, Sampson continues to expand his vision doing justice to his subjects from the inchworm and the ant to the mystery of the universe as no other poet in America today.

The Lunatic in the Trees

Sampson, Dennis

Poetry. David Allan Evans' vision is virtually limitless. Born of the great expanse of South Dakota and touching locales as distant as Mexico, China and the Isle of Man, Evans' expression of that vision is as subtle as it is encompassing. THE CARNIVAL, THE LIFE (Settlement House Books, 2013) is a meditation on a life well lived.

The Carnival, The Life

Evans, David Allan

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Women's Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Gail Wronsky. Alicia Partnoy's FLOWERING FIRES/FUEGOS FLORALES is a work of wisdom born of witness and tempered by a lifetime of commitment to her craft. Gail Wronsky's translations render these poems as vital in English as they are in Spanish. This is a book to be cherished, read and reread. The book was honored as the recipient of the first annual Settlement House American Poetry Prize, which acknowledges the importance of the immigrant legacy and its potential as a force for social justice, tolerance and goodwill in the United States. Initiated in 2014, the Prize includes publication by Settlement House of a collection of poems by a first-generation American.

Flowering Fires/Fuegos Florales

Partnoy, Alicia

Poetry. BLOODROOT, Catherine Jagoe's first full length collection of poems, is the winner of the 2016 Settlement House American Poetry Prize. The prize is awarded annually to a book of poems by a first-generation American poet. The book is a passport to lands and cultures from England, Africa, Spain and the US. In language as lyrical and rich as that of anyone writing in English today, BLOODROOT celebrates humanity and answers the question of what it means to be a poet of the world.

Bloodroot

Jagoe, Catherine

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Neisser Moreno and Patricia Bejarano Fisher. María Teresa Ogliastri's SOUTH POLE/POLO SUR is a bilingual edition of a collection of poems that in its original Spanish has been celebrated as a triumph of the imagination. Publication of SOUTH POLE/POLO SUR presents this accomplished Venezuelan poet to English-speaking readers for the first time. Ogliastri brings her own brand of magic realism to her subject; in doing so, she has created a mythic journey imbued with ancient mythology, twentieth century cultural icons, and the immediate perspective born of her native Venezuela—and beyond. SOUTH POLE/POLO SUR is the accomplishment of an unflinching vision, the story of "an average man who treasured a dream of grandeur." It is that rare achievement, a tribute to the passion of life as it is meant to be lived in its fullest.

South Pole/Polo Sur

Ogliastri, Maria Teresa

Poetry. IT WAS THE ORANGE PERSIMMON OF THE SUN is an "in your face" confrontation with the mystery of our being here on earth in the early 21st century by a poet who, quietly and carefully over the past 35 years, has been carving his niche as our contemporary master of the extended meditation, the elegy and the book-length poem. From Deaths that Travel with the Weather and The Fourth Watch of the Night to The Work Ethic of the Common Fly (Settlement House) Louie Skipper has expanded the focus of his vision, which asserts itself most fully in IT WAS THE ORANGE PERSIMMON OF THE SUN. The book is a celebration of the extraordinary and the foibles of common man as well as the masters. Skipper's language carries us among the local butcher and doting aunts to Yeats and Dante, Rilke, Neruda and Robert Lowell; from Marcel Marceau and Nijinsky to Martin Luther King and "Bear" Bryant, invoking their presence via a unique and sometimes wildly off- beat sensibility.  Deeply reflective but immersed in the things of this world and those not so far behind us the hourglass, "fat from candles," the lynching tree, and vintage automobiles pictured on the calendars of yesteryear Skipper travels back and forth in time and place, from the Alabama of the 1950s to the present day and beyond, from Dr. King's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and Oakmulgee Creek to the Sea of Gallilee, constellations and black holes into a spirited future joined with the ancient Chinese poet "...limping along / too late to use on himself the wisdom he has accrued..."

It Was the Orange Persimmon of the Sun

Skipper, Louie

Poetry. WITHIN THE SHADOW OF A MAN is a work of collision—of art and sense, of morality and mortality, of logic and dream. Of Sampson's earlier work, Philip Levine has said, "In an era of…books of poetry largely about their own skill with language, it's more than a little breathtaking to encounter a poet who writes for the most basic reason: because he has to." In WITHIN THE SHADOW OF A MAN Dennis Sampson manages, once again, to join the cosmos with the very moments of what we call our lives.

Within the Shadow of a Man

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